Page 41 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“You’re a lunatic,” I told her breathlessly. “You’re an absolute lunatic.”

Slowly but surely, I managed to get my bearings. We were on a large bed with a jumble of mismatched quilts. The room around us was small and a little cluttered, with shelves covered in books and knickknacks. In one corner was a large plant pot filled with grass. The room smelled of Evangeline’s magic—old books, jasmine, and vanilla.

A small speaker designed to look like an old-fashioned radio switched on. Etta James warbled out of it. At the same time, a candle on the bedside table flickered to life.

“Hello, Chanel,” I said. A notebook left open on the dresser fluttered its pages coquettishly.

Evangeline seemed to have finally worked through the strange euphoria of the fall. She rolled off me, flopping down onto the bed by my side, and curled a hand around her labradorite pendant. The portal stone, I realized. Of course. In the shock of plummeting blindly through the darkness, I’d forgotten all about it.

She pushed herself up onto one elbow and grinned down at me. I was suddenly struck by the fact that the bedroom matched my dream almost exactly, although it filled in the details my mind had left fuzzy and amorphous. The last time I’d imagined myself in this bed…

I swallowed hard.

“You should’ve seen the look on your face,” Evangeline said. “Very noble and resigned. Thanks for trying to break my fall, by the way.”

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” I said stiffly. “Although, I don’t know how much good it would have done you.”

Evangeline’s smile softened into something sweeter and gentler. “I still appreciate it. That you would do that for me.”

Our faces were close together, and the warm solid line of her body was pressed against my side. It would be so easy to stretch up and press my lips to the welcoming curve of her smile. Her eyes were very green, and this close, I could see every freckle scattered across the bridge of her nose. I wondered how long it would take me to count them all.

Evangeline’s eyes flicked over my face. If she was searching for something, I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know if I wanted her to find it. Her gaze rested on my mouth for a long moment, but then she pulled back and got off the bed.

“We should figure out where to keep the piece of the ascendancy array, so it doesn’t attract attention,” she said.

“Of course.” It came out slightly hoarser than I’d been hoping, but if Evangeline noticed it, she didn’t comment.

She led me out into the living room but froze so abruptly that I almost crashed into her back. There was a man in her kitchen. He was tall and lean with ropey muscles. His gray hair was swept back from his face and was long enough that it almost reached his shoulders. He had a tidy beard, bright blue eyes, and was wearing one of the worst shirts I had ever seen—neon orange fish and bright red coral on a background of alarmingly bright aqua.

The strange man also had Evangeline’s plant-cat draped across his shoulders like a grassy feather boa and he seemed to be in the middle of making himself a sandwich.

“Ah, Evangeline!” the man said cheerfully, raising a hand in greeting when he saw us. “I was wondering when you’d be home. And you’ve brought a friend. How wonderful. You must be Gabriel de Montclair. Delightful. I was wondering when I would meet you.”

“Marcus.” Evangeline groaned. “Seriously, you have your own place. I’ve been there. I know you have your own kitchen.”

“Well, yes, but my kitchen was suffering from a tragic lack of peanut butter,” Marcus said, raising a knife covered in peanut butter to make his point. “How did the expedition go?”

“Pretty well,” Evangeline told him. “Turns out there’s a clan of vampires trying to get the ascendancy array, too, so we had to deal with a few of their grunts, but they weren’t much of a challenge.”

Marcus nodded. He didn’t seem even the slightest bit surprised by our appearances. I was filthy, splashed with blood, and dusted with a considerable bit of soot. My jacket was shredded, and I could only assume that I looked exhausted. Evangeline, although she was as radiant as ever, didn’t look much better. Although her shoulder had healed up, there was still a jagged blood-stained gash through her jacket and shirt, and her hair had given up on the pretense of staying in its bun.

Marcus just blinked at us mildly.

“Sandwich?” he said, tilting a plate toward Evangeline. “I’m making my own special twist on the classic Elvis. Peanut butter, banana, and bacon, but with the addition of golden raisins.”

“You’re a sick, sick man,” Evangeline told him fondly, and he shrugged.

“I merely have refined tastes,” he said.

Evangeline snorted and shook her head, then moved past him with easy familiarity, filling a mug with water and chugging it down. They were completely used to sharing a space, weaving around each other smoothly. A pang of jealousy twisted its way up through my chest, and I squashed it down ruthlessly. I was beginning to come to terms with my own infatuation with Evangeline, but this was an older, uglier kind of jealousy. The sort I felt when I saw parents doting on their children.

“Okay, we need to figure out what the fuck we’re going to do with this thing,” Evangeline said, setting her mug down on the kitchen island with a firm clink. “Right now, I think our best bet is to muffle its power as much as we can. Double bagging?” she asked Marcus, who shook his head.

“Triple, I should think. At the very least.” He said it with an almost academic detachment, but his eyes were locked on the artifact Evangeline turned over in her hands.

She nodded and grabbed some of her evidence bags, wrapping the piece of the ascendancy array in layer after layer. “That’s a pretty temporary solution, but it’ll hold us over for a little while,” she said. “I need to get myself cleaned up, because right now, all I can think about is how incredibly gross I feel. You two play nice, okay? I’m leaving Pothos in charge while I shower.”

Pothos yawned hugely, revealing sharp little white teeth. Then he stretched out one of his fuzzy front legs, nestled his face against Marcus’s shoulder, and promptly fell asleep.

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